Help Ssebutinde To Help You

LADY JUSTICE Julia Ssebutinde is back in action. For several weeks now, her team has been doing paper work in preparation for the inquiry into the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA). Her investigators have also been busy with the groundwork before the fully-fledged public hearings get under way. Now the judge, who spent a year and a half probing corruption in the police force, has started doing her work in the open.For an inquiry of this nature to succeed, the panel requires the cooperation of the public. All members of the public who have dealt with URA and noticed something fishy should therefore step forward and assist the commission. It is unfortunate for an elaborate tax collection machinery to be established over the years only to be defeated by criminal elements in the public and the authority itself.It is also incumbent upon staff of URA to quietly give clues to the commission. Much of the revenue is lost through scams well known to staff, but not so obvious to the public. For example, it is possible that most smuggled fuel is sold at pumps at registered petrol stations, and that which is carried in jerry cans across the border could be a small proportion. It also recently came to light that some officers form dummy companies, which falsely claim export compensation for goods that were never exported. It is also possible that a similar scam exists involving paying out commissions to fictitious informers over evaded taxes, upon mere suspicion of default, and not when no collection has been made. The commission has the expertise to sift through wild allegations and justifiable suspicions. Forward them.Ends